A study conducted by researchers at the
University of Granada Group of Neuropsychology and Clinical
Psychoneuroimmunology has demonstrated that cortisol levels in
saliva are associated with a person's ability to make good decisions
in stressful situations.
The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) constitutes
the standard test for the assessment of decision-making skills under
conditions of uncertainty. Responses of the
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to psychosocial stress, in
turn, have been estimated by means of cortisol measurements.
The main objective in this study was to test if good and bad IGT
performers show distinct HPA axis responses, when challenged in a
classic psychosocial stress test.
To verify that decision-making skills
might modulate human response to psychosocial stress, the University
of Granada researchers evaluated the decision-making process in 40
healthy women. Participants were asked to perform the so-called Iowa
Gambling Task. Next, participants were presented a stressful
situation in a virtual environment consisting on delivering a speech
in front of a virtual audience.
The activation of the HPA axis, involved
in the stress response, was assessed by examining the levels of
cortisol in the subjects' saliva at the following four stages:
before the challenge, after the challenge, and 10 and 20min after
the task.
Participants were divided into two groups according to their level
of performance, good or poor, on the IGT.
Results showed statistically significant
differences between the groups for pre-exposure cortisol levels and
for cortisol levels 20min after exposure. Overall cortisol levels
were significantly higher in the group with poor performance on the
IGT. It appears that good decision-making, which may be an important
resource for coping with stress, is associated with a lower HPA axis
response to a psychosocial stressor: people who are not skilled in
decision-making have greater cortisol levels in saliva than people
highly skilled in decision-making..
Cortisol –known as the stress hormone–
is a steroid hormone segregated at the adrenal cortex and stimulated
by the adrenocorticotropic (ACTH) hormone, which is produced at the
pituitary gland. Cortisol is involved in a number of body systems
and plays a relevant role in the muscle-skeletal system, blood
circulation, the immune system, the metabolism of fats,
carbohydrates and proteins and the nervous system.
Can decision-making skills affect
responses to psychological stress in healthy women? The paper was
recently published in the prestigious journal
Psychoneuroendocrinology. The paper authors are Ana Santos Ruiz,
María Carmen García Ríos, Juan Carlos Fernández Sánchez, Miguel
Pérez García, Miguel Ángel Muñoz García and María Isabel Peralta
Ramírez from the University of Granada Department of Personality,
Evaluation and Psychological Treatment.
For more information
Universidad de Granada
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